Introduction to The New Testament Part 10 Epistle to the Galatians

hello everyone this is your teacher lar Cesar Lopes for the past few months I have been teaching you about uh introduction to the New Testament and today our uh 10th lesson uh our 10th lecture uh in this case will be a dive into the letter uh to the Galatians it's a a privilege in honor of mind to facilitate uh to you the studies uh of the New Testament anyone who wants to understand the New Testament or the Old Testament or to understand the Christian Life have to decide to dive into uh the studies of the

books of the New Testament or either the old Testament um whatever the case might be in our case is uh uh the New Testament there's no other way for us to understand our Christian Life or understand the Bible if we do not study the Bible the only way to understand the Bible is to study the Bible with the Bible in another disciplines another courses another uh material you you can study with anything else but the Bible you explain the Bible with the Bible you study the Bible with the Bible and there's no other way for

us to understand and to assimilate the content in this case today uh in order for us to learn a little bit about the letter or the EP uh to the Galatians I want to help you to understand the whole background of course we have to understand this is a intro introductory of course that is not a exis this is not a Theology of the New Testament this is Introduction to the books of the New Testament that simply said is to give you a base for what it's built upon and uh and to help you um

in starting your uh studies and your knowledge about the New Testament well the letter to the Galatians the letter of Paul to the Galatians is one of the Epistles uh of the New Testament I'm going to give you right up front uh the letter was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians in the region of galatia yes so you already know that the book of galatian or the letter to the galatian was written by the Apostle Paul all well well uh the galatia were a Roman province in Anatolia modernday turkey the letter was written

second thing I'm going to give you to I mean the third thing I'm going to give you today we already know that the book was written from Paul the Apostle to the Christians in the galatia second third secondly uh galatia was a pro Province uh in atolia which is uh today's world uh turkey and this letter was written around 49 to 55 of our era 49 to 55 there's many discussions amongst the theologians and the scholars about the date and uh they have dispute that for so many years so many centuries and we have this

uh period of time and we understand by uh quite a few things that we're going to provide to you that this letter was were written from the 49 to 55 we cannot assure exactly the year or the month or the day but the circumstances that were involving uh the writing of this letter by that we can have a glimpse of when and where this letter and why this letter was were written all that said at the time Paul wrote this letter the region of the galatia was inhabited by a mixture of cultures a mixture of

people from different regions of the world including including SS Greeks Romans Jews people from all over the world okay the population was largely a rural with many is small agriculture agricultural communities is scar throughout this region that we call Galatians Paul wrote through to the Galatians now we we we are going to some deep stuff here and it's just going to be a kind of a appeal for you to dive into the reading of of the letter to the Galatians and to start to think about it when Paul wrote the Galatians he did so to

correct false doctrines being taught by some religious leaders back then and I already mentioned within the community of the of Faith some leaders coming from different regions and even from Israel some Jews they brought with them some baggages from old tradition and they were trying to impose those Traditions to the brothers to the new brothers and sisters in that region in that Community that's not much different today from those days just to for us to understand better we have people we are today's in Florida or in Washington state there's so many immigrants and people migrate

from different regions of the world even though that they are Christians and they have some cultural backgrounds within their their religions if not they have incorporate some um uh other religion uh practices into their uh service to God and Paul addresses also in the Galatians those problems of doctrine of heresy that was being taught by some religious leaders coming from outside of the community these false teachers were influencing newly converted Christians to adopt Jewish religious practices such as circumcision and adherance to the mosaic laws as in those practices they were trying to force into the

community of the faith in that region as a requirement for salvation and as a requirement of of and for salvation and what caught my attention in Paul is that you were not impressed by the pressure of some other uh leaders some other religious leaders trying to incorporate teachings that were not taught by the Lord and he were very very up to front to the front with his position he stands for what he believes now he stands for the same day that prior to become a Christian he were is standing for the Jewish religion and he

knew exactly all the practices all the premises and uh of of the law of the Jewish law of the law of Moses and now as a Jewish Theologian converted to Christ and he clearly understood the message of of Salvation he clearly understood the message that he has to share he did not become a coward and you were not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that's why he posed himself in a position of extending his grounds Paul because all of the heresies all of the teachings that they were trying to force into this Brothers new

brothers Paul emphasized that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ not by works of the law anyone who thinks or back then taught that salvation could be something that I would earn with my good works my good deeds Paul says no our Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ he was and he is is the Messiah he is the savior there's nothing a man could do to justify himself before God that's why Paul is very emphatic that's why Paul uh present his the defense of his teachings salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ not by

works furthermore Paul defend his own Apostolic Authority we have to understand if you remember First Corinthians 2 Corinthians we visit with that reality also in that in those congregations in those that church and now he's facing the same thing and he has to defend his apostleship his authority and the gospel that he preached arguing that he received his message directly directly from Jesus Christ through divine revelation yeah is very emphatic that his message he did not receive from anybody down the road he did not receive the message that he preach and that he teaches from

anybody else but he received the message directly from Jesus Christ through Revelation he also in the book of in the letter of to the Galatians he reminded those Brothers he reminded the Galatians of his own conversion experience just a little pause here we need to always remember where this man came from he were a a great man he was a leader he was an official leader of the guard of the security most higher and ranked security of the emperor and the empire into the Galilee region he was not nobody he was somebody he is study

very deep and he studies with he studied with a a man with a doctor of the law with the name galel he studyed with him and he himself become part and become one of the doctors of the law he knew the law of Moses from Back to the fr front and front to the back and upside down and before having this conversion experience he thought that he were committed by God to really destroy anyone who pose any danger to the law of Moses and back then in that case CHR Christianity that was growing fast all

over he just got himself a call I have to destruct I have to strike hard into this new religion thing that is going on out there I need to do something and he went after the Christians he uh harassed the Christians to bring them to to be killed by Gladiators in their Arenas and by the beasts in the Arenas and he did all that believing that he was doing something that God committed him to do it he know the law he knew knew the law and he thought that he was doing right the correspondence of

the the cultural level and the preparation with with his doctr uh in the Moses law in today's world might be a philosophy doctor yes yes he knew remember he was Greek because he he was born in a Greek Province he studied he learned Greek he knew Roman okay and he most like knew other languages okay and he knew Hebrew because he studied the law the Torah he has a deep knowledge of the Torah so this men the Apostle Paul he was not nobody you were very well vers and prepared once he convert to Christ that's

how God does God uses what we have God uses what you have once God asked Moses Moses what you have in your hands Moses was so concerned about being or not being used by God and he said well I don't have nothing but Moses what you have in your hand oh I have just a a w stick okay throw this wood stick on the floor and he throw the wood stick on the floor and the wood stick transform into a serpent oh a serpent then the L the Lord said grab the the serpent once he

touch the serpent the certain serpent become return turn back to its original only I would stick God use whatever you are and what you have Paul you God uses Paul then the Apostle Paul with everything that he has philosophy culture Hebrew theology Moses law strategy he was a strategist a strategy deep thinker sensibility now his spiritual sensibility God uses everything so he reminded the Galatians of his own conversion experience and how he had formerly persecuted the Christians but he was transformed by the power of God he was transformed by the power of God so in

this book he he shows us he teaches us how he was transformed by the power of God so Paul adds to the Galatians is a powerful defense of justification this is a very deep theological uh statement and and content Paul's letter to the galaan is a powerful defense of justification by faith and a warning against religious legalism yes religious legalism you can tap on your chest saying this and that and this and that but if you don't have that into your life is just a symbol making a big noise big noise our justification justification is

by faith nothing that I can do will justify me give money to the poor helping widows in order to save myself it's not going to work you know giving my tithes and my offerings at the church is not going to save me if if I do not confess myself and if I don't believe don't accept as Paul says him and have a a conversion and conversion is in in the Christian realm is just like this I heard the word the word of God confront me once I am confront by the word of God the word

of God will reach me in a certain way that I will repent I will repent from my sinful life and once I Repent from my sinful life I will confess and when I confess I will be uh forgiven and once I I am forgiven I will be justified before God by the blood of Jesus Christ who is who cleanses me from all my sins so my justification is not is not about Works my justification is by faith and faith in Jesus alone also it's important to to to know that he reminded the Galatians that their

freedom in Christ was not to be used as an excuse for indulging in the flesh but as an opportunity to serve others through love that's important some people they exacerbated so much the fact of Grace that they use the grace of God you know to go back and indulge themselves in a fleshly life in a sinful life and he charg the Galatians not to use the grace not to use that as an excuse oh at the end of the day God will forgive me God will receive me not a problem I'm going to keep doing

whatever I'm doing I'm going to be no he charged them not to use the Liberty the freedom that the grace of God brought to us to use that as an excuse for indulging ourselves into a flesh a fleshly live life and opportunity but but instead of it use that use the grace use the freedom as an opportunity to serve others through love well that's what this book that's what this letter is all about and you have here I provide for you into your uh as a consult material okay okay uh this a PowerPoint presentation okay

I save that in the uh in as a PDF okay you can go through you can scroll up up and down okay and you will learn a lot from it I save that for you it it is in Portuguese and in English okay and I even place here in those in this slides some theological um uh vision of that Paul is explore in the book I also um gave you in this slides uh all the uh enduring relevance of Galatians okay what was the Galatians represent for the people back then and what it represents for

us today I mean the the problems that they were having back then is not that much different from what we have today and the word of God for them back for for them uh is still Rising with us with the church today is the same message for the church today yes we have many teachings that does not equate with the teachings of Jesus Christ or the teachings of the Apostles and U yes you have here a uh key statements okay and the key statements of the book of the letter is for Freedom Christ has set

us free so if we are already free why would I will uh indulge myself to a slavery uh fleshly life so you'll be able to scroll up and down and that will be very helpful because this is just an outline is slid show to to help you okay uh the J the J L J uh we have here also for you okay which is the letter to the Galatians an epistle combating heresy okay that's the the the Jour uh for the book of the Galatians and that will be very helpful you once again this is

just an outline I want you to have the most because you have uh the the student guiding uh in PDF also where we have the whole text for you to read and to understand uh more about uh in details about the the the letter to the Galatians okay uh we have some differences in in interpr interpretative uh positions okay uh that's why Paul uh he present his defense and he present the defense of his theology his teachings and he's trying to debunk uh people that were trying to teach something different from the gospel from the

the Revelation that he has received from from the Lord okay and um um yes we already uh mentioned that he identify the false teachers within the church which is very important uh we need to understand that today's world we face so much um wrong and uh if I may say heretical uh teachings and uh we need to um we need to extend ourselves we need to stand stand on the grounds of the the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Gospel that the apostles have taught us okay so you have a plenty of material author the days

you know uh the recipients we already spoke a little bit about that and the people from all over from different uh cultures and religious backgrounds and the uh Paul face them in order to defend the the faith defend his position this defend his apostleship is very important for us to know location where he wrote it okay most likely was was during the his third uh mission mission uh Journey okay most likely in the middle of his third mission journey and possibly he were in Ephesus when he wrote it uh this book or Macedonia uh that

was part of his third uh uh uh uh missionary uh uh Journey also okay um and the year the timing that the year uh that he wrote it there uh is from 49 to 55 well brothers friends I hope you have a good time as you research as you dive into the material and um I hope that uh that was very helpful to you to introduce you listen listen please please this is just an introduction to the studies of the book of the epistle to the Galatians God bless you see you next time